Yoshino and Nozomi could be seen on the school's rooftop as they enjoyed their lunch while Seiza rested on Nozomi's lap. When Nozomi finished her lunch, she was nudged by Seiza as he sneakily pointed at his birthmark with one of his paws. Nozomi stared at it for a few seconds before remembering. "Oh yeah, thank you, Seiza. I almost forgot!"
Nozomi happily turned to Yoshino as the latter curiously turned her attention away from her food to Nozomi. "Yoshino! Seiza and I want to show you something we came up with yesterday! You're going to love it!" Seiza silently agreed with a nod.
Yoshino couldn't help but feel intrigued by what kind of surprise the two of them could come up with while she was at home yesterday. The stress of almost dying two days in a row had left her not in the mood to do anything else besides going straight back home after class.
When Yoshino told Nozomi and Seiza that, they agreed and said they would do the same after they tried to find a way to remove the slowdown from Nozomi's powers back at the abandoned building. "Perhaps they actually did it?" Yoshino assumed. She didn't know how Nozomi's pendant worked. But from what Nozomi had told her back at the campfire...they needed to sort that out as soon as possible.
After she finished her lunch, Yoshino decided to play along with the surprise. "Pray tell, what would that be?"
"Y'see, remember how you managed to uncover my secret identity just by looking at me?" Yoshino slowly nodded before Nozomi continued.
"Well, while Seiza and I were on a 5-minute pause after conducting tests and...I guess you could also call it training with my powers..." Nozomi shook her head to get back on topic. "Anyway, when I remembered that and told Seiza, we discussed how we could avoid similar situations with others. We just might have found a way!"
Nozomi turned her cheerful smile to Seiza. "Seiza, would you do the honors?"
Seiza politely nodded before he got up from Nozomi's lap and sat in front of Yoshino. With a breath, he closed his eyes, and a light came out of his birthmark.
When Yoshino blinked, she saw a white bull mask and a pink goat mask as they floated in the air before her, thanks to Seiza's magic. When she reached for the goat mask, she felt it was made of plastic. On closer inspection, she saw that the mask had a kanji for the animal they represented engraved on their foreheads. "Wow..." she muttered, impressed by the work put in.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Nozomi didn't even try to hide her expression of pride as she picked up the bull mask. "We made them with that machine from the abandoned lab...see if it fits!" Nozomi excitedly motioned for Yoshino to try the mask on.
Yoshino raised an eyebrow at how excited her best friend was about a mask. She decided to shrug it off before wearing the pink goat mask, holding it with her right hand so it wouldn't fall off. "This is pretty cool, Nozomi. With these masks, we can hide our identity from anyone we don't want to know although...we will need a string or something along those lines so the masks can stay on our faces."
Nozomi's smile grew bigger as Yoshino said that. The latter saw it through the eyeholes of the mask. "Oh, don't worry, Seiza brought up this same issue and accounted for that. Take your hand off the mask."
Curious to see where Nozomi was going with this, Yoshino slowly lowered her hand from the mask, expecting it to fall off, and...it didn't. Her surprise was short-lived as the thought of how she was supposed to take her mask off crossed her mind. "Wait...how am I supposed to get this out of my face?!" Yoshino asked, hoping that her best friend had thought that far enough.
Thankfully, Yoshino was proven correct as Nozomi raised her own mask so that Yoshino could see it and pointed at the kanji engraved on it. "Simple, you see this kanji engraved on my mask? Try to touch the one that's engraved on yours!"
When Yoshino complied, the mask easily fell from her face and landed on her lap. "Is this...Seiza's magic?" Yoshino asked as she returned the mask to Seiza so he could keep it safe until needed.
Seiza proudly nodded. "Yes, I put an enchantment on the mask where it will only be free from the wearer's face if they touch the kanji I engraved on the mask's forehead. That way, not even darkspawns will manage to take it off."
Yoshino raised a hand to her chin. "Y'know, I wonder what else we could create with that machine back at the lab. Maybe we could create some form of...protection against attacks from those monsters?"
At that, Seiza looked unsure. "I mean...maybe? I could try, but it's not like we have a way to know if it works without...putting ourselves in danger since I doubt they would be so kind as to help us test it without any killing intent."
He raised his left paw to point at Nozomi's mask. "Even this mask. Sure, they might not be able to take it off the traditional way, but I can only guarantee that. I wouldn't doubt that they could still break the mask and harm you, if not kill you, in the process with their innate physical abilities."
"Yeah, fair enough, I guess..." Yoshino scratched the back of her head. As she did, the sound of the bell could be heard, indicating that recess was over. Without much delay, they all left the rooftop to go back to class.
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At the teacher's lounge, Life sat on one of the room's chairs. He seemed to be listening to music on his MP3 Player with headphones on while eating a bag of chips that had the brand GreenChips. His drink also followed its example with its brand of it being YellowJuice.
In reality, he had been listening to the girls' conversation on the rooftop. When the school's bell rang, he finished the last of the juice and the chips. He put the MP3 inside his backpack before he got up from his chair and walked out of the office. His current destination was the bathroom where he would wash his hands before class. Well, this is certainly an interesting development. I guess now I won't need to control the flow of information as much as before. Allowing Kurai to find out about their identities right now wouldn't have as much potential for drama if, say...later in a dramatic fashion.
Just as Life was about to leave the men's bathroom after cleaning his hands, he bumped into something that felt like a wall made of steel. "What the-" He backed away a few feet only to see that the wall was actually a person.
This individual was so big and large that Life couldn't see all of his body from where he stood. The man had a physique that would make even the best bodybuilders feel inferior in comparison. His muscles were easily seen through his clothes. His height towered above Life in such a way that forced him to look up to see the man's barely visible face, the rest of it blocked from view.
The towering figure soon spoke. "Ah, excuse me." The man said apologetically before crouching down and carefully maneuvering around the bathroom's entrance, which was not made for someone of his stature. As he passed through the exit, he revealed himself to be a man who looked like he was in his late 20s. His clothes were actually the same set of clothes that the male students wore at school.
As Life took in the man's appearance, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the strange student. "Er...no problem." As Life moved out of the way, he looked at the student up and down, baffled at their size. Okay, apparently the people of this world can just...become walls of meat if they want to... He blinked a few times until his face became a scowl as he realized something. I only noticed this guy now...was I...really that focused on the girls that throughout the entire time I've been here I did not notice this monster of a man?!
After a few seconds, he sighed. Y'know what? I don't actually care. Like, he's probably not that important anyway. If he is...well, I will deal with it when I get there. But for now...I will just pretend I have never seen this. He turned around and left the bathroom for good.
As Life stepped inside the classroom, he saw that most students had already sat in their respective chairs, with Nozomi and Yoshino among them. Life sighed internally, trying his hardest to suppress it. Just...keep calm. This isn't the first time you've dealt with a situation like Nozomi's. Just wait for an opportunity to develop her character to present itself...and take it before it goes away.
Life walked up to his table, put his backpack on top of it, and started taking out his materials to teach the class.
Life took out his English book and opened it to where he had last left off. "Alright class, let's continue where we left off!" he said in English for the whole class to hear.
As he flipped the page of his English book and saw the names and appearances of many animals, one of them was a picture of a fly, which made him remember Judai. He said that they would show up soon two days ago. Although he also said that they would take their time to get here. How's that the case? He still hasn't found the best situation to ask Kurai about that specifically without sounding more talkative than normal to her...or at least that's what he told me.
A thought then crossed his mind. I wonder how it feels to exist as someone like Judai? I mean, he acts like he's alive, but that's the thing, it's an act. Now, if he's intentionally or instinctually acting, that's...something I might want to ask about later during his free time.
A realization crossed his mind at that moment. Does...he do anything in his free time? Hmm, I might ask that if I care enough.